Genesis 8:1-22 - G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

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Bible Comments

Upborne on the billows of judgment, the Ark rode securely, holding within it the nucleus of a new departure in human history. When the work of judgment was fully accomplished, the waters decreased, and the voice that had commanded Noah to build the Ark and to enter therein called him forth.

What a stupendous moment it was in the history of the race and in the experience of this man when he emerged from what had been practically a prison, and yet the vantageground of God for the continuity of His plan and purpose for humanity.

He who by faith had renounced everything in obedience to God, in spite of all appearances, now stepped forth, the sole possessor of the earth. A new day was dawning for humanity, a day of new opportunity in which men would live with history's testimony to the fact of the divine government and judgment, forever speaking to them of the issues of sin and of the impossibility of escape from the government of God.

The first act of Noah as he found himself delivered from judgment and established in possession was a reaction of response and in itself was most significant. His first look was Godward, and his first act the erection of an altar and the offering of sacrifices.

This attitude and action were answered by a declaration of God which was full of grace. His knowledge of the fact of sin still remaining is declared, but henceforth it was not to be the gauge of His dealing with man. In spite of sin the promise was made that the natural order should continue, seasons come and go, and the day and night should not cease. In other words the declaration was that the earth was not to be involved in the chaos which followed the primal cataclysm Genesis 1:2), but continue to be the sphere for carrying out His purposes in humanity.

Related Commentaries of Genesis 8:1

Genesis 8:1-22

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;

2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually:a and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreasedb continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth toc and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds,d went forth out of the ark.

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And the LORD smelled a sweete savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.